With all due respect Norm, this argument doesn't wash. Depending on direction of impact (a left side impact or a right side impact) the brace is either in compression or tension. In tension I doubt the stock one would stretch much. Not only that, if you stuffed one of these cars into something with sufficient force that it bends and twists the chassis, the car is totaled anyway. The body shop won't call and say "thank God that support brace bent, your car is fine." Won't happen because if the brace is all folded up, the rest of the chassis is junk. I looked at the stock brace, there aren't any relief areas like crumple zone dimples for controlled collapse. It's just a stamped steel brace that was done at a price point.
On a right side impact, if it fails it will fail in
compressive buckling. The right side "pedestal" that it and the PHB attach to will bend over and more than likely distort the right side frame rail locally. The left side frame structure won't have as much damage, maybe none at all.
All bets are off on a left side curb strike unless the PHB itself buckles early enough. In that case, you'd be hoping that the PHB could provide a "structural fuse" function.
You are completely contradicting yourself here. The first sentence says it isn't part of the main chassis and then the second says it loads the chassis.
If the PHB brace isn't part of the main chassis, what exactly does it mount to? When I was under my car it sure as the world attached to the chassis. Ford doesn't mount and pivot the panhard bar off the chassis? Yes they do.
Bolted-on braces are supplemental structure, not main chassis structure. This one isn't there for anything other than to distribute the PHB loading to the driver side of the car, and wouldn't be there at all if the S197 had used a different type of rear suspension.
So if it was found on the Steeda, Whiteline, or BMR site then the potential buyer wouldn't be quite as stupid? No reason to be condescending just because Granatelli decided to market them on eBay.
The risks are still the same, and I would have still shot down the "OE is flimsy" argument with the same words - which is my main gripe here.
I have advised against bothering with the brace for the same reasons before, several times, on several forums, without regard for whose brace might have been under discussion or how it was available. That it was Granatelli's brace here, with e-Bay availability rather than direct, was strictly incidental and had nothing to do with anything I posted. I'm biting my tongue a bit specifically because it's Granatelli who is involved, but that's all I'm going to say about that.
You can always propose a crash situation beyond whatever the existing structure and supplemental suspension bracing can cope with. But until I find that the OE brace is inadequate (and I commonly load my car's PHB brace up higher than most S197 owners ever will) I will choose to keep whatever "window" exists between PHB brace buckling and more consequential serious damage on the left side.
Now . . . you can choose either to insult me with words like 'condescending' or accept the possibility that I might have learned a thing or two about structural topics over the 40 years or so that I was either studying it for my BSCE or getting paid to do it.
Norm
